Involuntary Treatment Usually Fails. Here’s Why.

rredick May 23, 2022

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Mandated (involuntary) treatment, in prisons or elsewhere, has a distressingly poor track record of success with substance use, and sometimes does real harm. Nonetheless, such civil commitments (as they’re called) are expanding across the United States. In this New York Times opinion piece, Maia Szalavitz reviews the hard facts about forced treatment, and notes the far greater success of voluntary and compassion-based approaches such as CR

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/opinion/forced-addiction-treatment.html?smid=url-share

rredick

Gift Cards For Negative Drug Tests: A Surprisingly Effective Policy Gets a Second Chance

The evidence says it works for stimulants like meth and cocaine, but the approach is still in the pilot stage.

rredick December 3, 2024

Hunter Biden and the National Conversation About SUD

Biden’s case, like those of other famous persons, could help shed some needed light on the disorder.

rredick August 20, 2024

Rhode Island Sees First Drop in Drug Fatalities Since 2019

The state is also the newest to make access to Allies in Recovery free for all residents

rredick August 13, 2024

SUD Is “A preventable, Treatable Disease With Roots in Adolescence”

A conversation with the CEO of the Partnership to End Addiction

rredick July 30, 2024

Allies in Recovery Named a Top 10 Addiction Recovery Company by Health Care Business Review

It’s a welcome endorsement of the effectiveness and solid track record of Allies in Recovery: recognition by a trusted journal as one of the 10 best companies dedicated to addiction recovery in the United States.

rredick May 14, 2024

Fourth Largest Health Insurer U.S. Is Sued For Fraudulent, AI-Calculated Denial of Claims

If you’ve been thinking that concerns about artificial intelligence are overblown, this story may change your mind. But as with many abuses of new technology, human greed also plays a role.

rredick March 12, 2024

The Biden Administration Is Easing Access to Methadone

Fentanyl and other opioids are cutting lives short in numbers we’ve never seen before. Unfortunately, this health emergency hasn’t yet generated the national response we need. But there are some encouraging steps in the right direction—and among them are these new rules on access to methadone.

rredick March 5, 2024

What Happens In Recovery: A Young Man’s Journey in 2 ¼ Minutes

rredick February 27, 2024

Fentanyl Is Making “The Worst Overdose Crisis in American History” Worse All The Time

Many factors have combined to make recent years the deadliest in history for U.S. drug overdose deaths. At the same time, many policy responses, from bold to incremental, are on the negotiating table. Unfortunately, as this report from Politico explains, most of them are likely to stay there awhile. For now, in the absence of national leadership, it’s up to others to carry on.

rredick November 21, 2023

Positive Childhood Experiences Are Linked to Emotional Health and Resilience—Even in Households Experiencing Trauma

For decades, pediatric research has focused on negative childhood experiences (NCEs) and their effects on children’s wellbeing. Until recently, however, positive childhood experiences (PCEs) went mostly unstudied. Now that’s beginning to change, and the findings are encouraging to say the least.

rredick September 20, 2023

Ozempic, Widely Used for Diabetes and Weight Loss, Has Potential Substance Use Disorder Benefits As Well

It was developed to help regulate blood sugar in diabetics and pre-diabetics. It’s widely (though unofficially) used for weight loss. Now semaglutide (brand name Ozempic) is showing promise for SUD sufferers as well.

rredick September 12, 2023

Fentanyl Deaths In Communities of Color: A Crisis “Decades In the Making”

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals the unequal effects of the opioid crisis on Black, Native American, Hispanic, and white populations in the United States. Fentanyl deaths in particular have skyrocketed for all groups—but far more so in Black communities. Understanding the lasting effects of discrimination is essential, both for grasping the problem and seeking solutions.

rredick September 5, 2023

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Family Takes Its Caring to the Next Level

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) affects nearly 6% of Americans at some point in their lives, but research, treatment, and support for the condition lags far behind other serious mental illnesses. Paula Tusiani-Eng and her parents know first-hand what it’s like to live with, and eventually lose, a loved one suffering from BPD. Their story is remarkable not just because of those challenges, but because of what they decided to do next.

rredick August 22, 2023

Ketamine: A Potential Leap Forward In Opioid Addiction Medication

Buprenorphine is a crucial medicine for many patients in treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). But with the rise of deadly fentanyl, buprenorphine is becoming much harder to use effectively. That’s where another medicine, ketamine, is showing immense promise.

rredick August 15, 2023

White Patients Receive Opioid Addiction Medication at More Than Twice the Rate of Black Patients

In a new report, the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that Black and Native American patients struggling with opioid use were less than half as likely to be prescribed a crucial treatment medicine as White patients. The reasons are numerous, but many stem from what the reports’ authors call “the racial segregation of healthcare” in the United States.

rredick August 2, 2023

Bromazolam, Delivered By Mail, Is Killing Canadians in Startling Numbers

Over 20,000 Canadians have died of opioid-related causes since 2020. Many of these deaths involved opioids mixed with Bromazolam or similar illicit sedatives—and most, it appears, reach users via Canadian mail. Until that pipeline can be shut down, awareness may be the best protection families can hope for.

rredick July 25, 2023

Lessons From Risk (the Board Game) May Help You Change Your Life

Eric Zimmer barely survived his twentieth year, when his struggle with heroin was at its worst. In this TED talk, he looks back on the choices he made and strategies he developed that supported his full recovery. Don’t worry if you’ve never played Risk! Eric’s presentation lays it all out clearly.

rredick June 20, 2023

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New Data Proves It: You’re Not Alone

A Pew Research Center survey gives us another sharp statistical window on substance use in America. Its findings may surprise you. 46% of Americans have a family member or close friend who’s struggled with substance use disorder.

Allies in Recovery May 17, 2023

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A New Study Reveals How the Brains of Family Members Respond to Their Loved One

It’s no mystery that humans subjected to various stressors can respond in similar ways. But why is this so? What are the neurological mechanisms? We’re far from having all the answers. Now, however, brain scans are revealing similar activity in substance use disorder (SUD) sufferers and the family and friends who care for them.

Allies in Recovery May 3, 2023

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Debunked in 3 ½ Minutes: Harmful Myths About Family and Recovery

It can’t be said too often: substance use disorder is a disease. Yet unlike nearly all other diseases, it’s still often treated as a moral failure, or even a lifestyle choice. This short video illustrates this double standard in the starkest terms. It reminds us that showing care, commitment, and understanding to a Loved One with SUD is not just natural, but also the foundation for helping them at all.

Allies in Recovery April 12, 2023

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Mental Health: Just How Much Have We Got Wrong?

Everyone knows that great ideas can spread. But bad ones can also “hang around so long that you can forget you have the option of questioning them.” In this arresting Ted Talk, the entrepreneur and mental health leader Khaliya takes on some ideas that certainly merit questioning, and make a passionate case for trying to “remove our mental health blinders.”

rredick February 1, 2023

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Opioid Treatment Medications Will Be Permanently More Accessible Under New Federal Rules

Covid-19 pushed U.S. patient care to the brink. In response, take-home policies for opioid treatment medications use were temporarily relaxed. There’s evidence that these changes were massively beneficial. Now a federal agency is moving to make the changes permanent—and even expand them.

rredick January 25, 2023

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A Vaccine That Blocks the Effects of Fentanyl Created In the Lab

Testing on humans has yet to begin, but the vaccine still represents a breakthrough. As fentanyl deaths hit an all-time high in the United States, the search for solutions is heating up as well. Now researchers at the University of Houston say that have developed a potential “game changer”: a vaccine that stops fentanyl from affecting the brain at all.

rredick January 11, 2023

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At-Home, Computerized CBT Reduces Drug Use as Much as CBT Delivered in a Clinical Setting, Study Finds

Self-administering CBT via a computer training program helps as many people reduce their drug use as CBT delivered in person by a clinician, according to a clinical trial. In some cases, the results may even be better.

rredick December 28, 2022

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Meet the Parents Who’ve Had Enough of the War on Drugs

As one of the world’s leading researchers and thinkers on trauma, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk knows better than to offer solutions to this most intricate of problems. In this video series, he brilliantly describes the contours of trauma, community, and individualism, shedding brilliant light on the search for one’s own path to recovery.

rredick December 26, 2022

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My Brother Is Not a Monster: A Children’s Book About SUD, Recovery, and One Loving Family

Children can understand SUD better than adults might think. Good storytelling can help. This beautifully illustrated children’s book is spot on: showing a family challenged by SUD but coming together to support their Loved One. Instead of magnifying fear, it teaches and sheds light. And its arrival could hardly be more timely.

rredick December 12, 2022

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Material Rewards Can Make Recovery Fun — and Lead To Dramatically Better Outcomes

The research is clear: tangible rewar

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